Structural and functional changes of the optic nerve post COVID-19 infection / Mai Abdelkader Saad ; Supervised Hala Saad Eldin Ahmed , Maha Mohammed Youssef , Mye Ali Basheer

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Ophthalmology

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered single-stranded RNA virus from the coronavirus family. It was initially discovered in Wuhan, Hubei, China, in December 2019. As a result, a pandemic has developed.(1)The eye is a critical target with a wide range of symptoms. The viral RNA could be extracted from a variety of ocular tissues, including the conjunctiva and tears. Also, it is found that COVID-19 affects the eye with wide variety of manifestations such as: conjunctivitis, episcleritis,central retinal vein occlusion, optic neuritis, vitritis and mucormycosis.(4) Objectives: The goal of this study is to detect any structural or functional insult to the optic nerve after COVID-19 infection.Methods: This is a cross sectional analytic study that was conducted in Kasr Al Ainy Hospital. A total of 30 cases were recruited from Kasr Al Ainy Hospital. They underwent a full ophthalmological examination, measurement of RNFL and GCC thickness by OCT and neurophysiological tests in the form of pattern reversal visual evoked potential and pattern electroretinogram. Results: A statistically significant decrease in the RNFL thickness in nearly all the segments of the optic nerve. The mean RNFL thickness was 109.56 ± 10.17 om in the right eye and 109.99 ± 10.14 om in the left eye. Also, the GCC also showed statistically significant thinning.The average was 95.73 om in the right eye and 95.86 om in the left eye

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